[Writer’s Workshop] Write about a child you find inspiring.

For this week’s Writer’s Workshop, I chose to write about a child I find inspiring, in case the title didn’t give that away! I could have EASILY written about any of the topics, but talking about a child I find inspiring immediately transported me to the time and place in which this post takes place.

I had always wanted to move off Long Island. I loved growing up on Long Island but I have always been more of a wanderer. In 2000 I started a new job working in New York City in the Chrysler building. It was directly across from Grand Central Station and the commute from Long Island to Penn station and then the continued trip from Penn to Grand Central was a bit long. Most days I just walked there and in those walks I thought about everything. On one of those walks I determined that this could be my chance to move. I could move upstate New York and take the train south direct to grand Central and then walk across the street! So I jumped online looked up places I could move that were both nice and inexpensive and moved a few weeks later.

The thing about moves such as I did is that when you move like this, chances are high that you will not know anyone on the other end. This is exactly what happened and I still remember those first 3 months going back and forth about what a mistake I might have made, that was until I was introduce to a group that was just starting out and became a large part of my life in a short period of time.

At the time I moved, Yahoo! Groups was a big thing. It was what Meetup is today, except free. People would create interest groups hoping to make new friends to do things with. A girl I went out with advised me of this group and I joined. I was nervous the first time I met up with these people but it turned out to be just myself and the groups founder, Barry, who would later become one of my best and closest friends right up until today! The group was not like the other groups. It wasn’t a hiking group, or poker group, it was a whatever you want to do lets do it group. We would just post what we were going to do on any given day and whoever wanted to go would show up.

It took me a couple of weeks to work up the nerve to post something but I figured I was new to the area, I could reinvent myself so I posted a hike I wanted to do. If anyone showed up that would have been awesome, but if noone did I would do it by myself. I had nothing to loose as I had been doing all my activities alone anyway so I figured why not.

To my surprise quiet a few people showed up. We hiked a very easy trail that had only 2 or 3 parts that needed some negotiating. What caught my attention fairly quickly was this younger girl who looked a little different but tackled everything with such a great attitude. It drew everyone to her. Her name was Audrey and she had come with her mother and a damily friend to go hiking with us, a bunch of complete strangers.

Now most people think “whats inspiring about a 14 year old who went with her mother to meet strangers and go for a hike?” Well, this 14 year old girl loved to hike and swim and ski and do anything that took her out of her comfort zone and make it fun. Oh… and she was blind. She was born blind, which is why she looked a little different, her eyes were sunken slightly further into her face than you would expect from the rest of her facial features.

She tackled each obstacle with an AMAZING attitude and made all of us laugh along the way. I remember her sort of arguing with her mother about going to some teens dance club and her mother was not too keen on the idea. Audrey’s argument was that she “wanted to shake her booty! I want to get my groove on!” I remember those words right now and it brings this smile to my face.

Tonight, I was working in the ER and this idiot of a guy came in because he wanted to kill himself so I was on his watch for his safety. Talking to him I found out he had a drinking problem and he allegedly wanted to kick it but was released from rehab that day and was drunk a few hours later. So here was this guy who had a family, a wife who stood by him and he was throwing his life away on a condition he drank himself into and decided the best way to overcome it is to end his life!?!? Then there are people like Audrey. A person born into a condition they have NO control of and instead of being angry or depressed about it, she faces her disability, or rather, her ability to do things and just do them.

I definitely this place needs a LOT more people like Audrey in it and maybe the uninspired will become Inspired and fix their lives for the better!